ACWF VP Highlights Women's Progress in Politics, Economics, Education

December 27, 2018 Editor: Liu Yang

Huang Xiaowei [People's Daily Online]

Chinese women have made noticeable achievements through their involvement in political and economic affairs and access to education over the past four decades, according to a statement made by a senior All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) official on December 18.

Huang Xiaowei, vice-president and first member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, gave the remarks during a live-streaming talk titled "Women's Strengths in Reform and Opening-up".

The talk was co-sponsored by the ACWF and the website People's Daily Online in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the country's reform and opening-up drive.

According to Huang, women have played an increasingly important role in each aspect of society since the 70s. Their presence can be found in all sectors, industries and international exchanges.

Their participation in economic and political affairs has reached an unprecedented height.

Statistics show that women accounted for 43.5 percent of the total employed population in China. More and more women now have found employment in newly-emergent industries such as IT, software and finance, Huang said.

About 55 percent of internet businesses have been founded by women, and they form around 25 percent of the total number of Chinese entrepreneurs.

There are 742 women among the 2,980 deputies to the 13th National People's Congress, accounting for 24.9 percent of the total national lawmakers. Moreover, women constitute 26.5 percent of government officials across the country, a nearly fivefold growth from the early period of reform and opening-up, she said.

Meanwhile, she pointed out that parallel progress has been made in guaranteeing women's rights to education.

For example, the proportion of female students in high schools rose from 39.7 percent in 1978 to 50.85 percent in 2017, and the percentage of women in colleges and universities grew from 24.1 percent in 1978 to 50.2 percent in 2017.

As many as 45.7 percent of women now have been enrolled in higher educational institutes, while the proportion was only 1.04 percent in 1980.